It is currently Tue 06th Jan,2009 03:16 am Affiliate
Up until recently my attitude toward affiliating with other PokéSites was, "No," or negative in general. It took me awhile to realize that that mentality was isolating PLDH.net from experiencing the broader Pokémon Community. The last thing I wanted this website to be was cut-off from the rest of the world, so to speak; otherwise what is the point in making a website to begin with?
That said my now being open to affiliation isn't without its... hindrances... You see, PLDH.net validates according to the W3C's web standards. Anybody can learn X/HTML and implement it to some degree but it takes care and time to implement it to the degree that a website validates. That said, though, all websites should validate and the fact that nearly 3/4 do not is a problem, assuming you asked for my opinion on the matter.
As far as the Pokémon Community goes, only about a handful of sites I have seen, and I've seen quite a few, actually validate. So, it would be somewhat ridiculous of me to make one of the criterion I am about to list for affiliating with us be that your website validates... However, I will be checking your website to see, if it does not validate, the average error count your website returns. I'm not going to set an error limit either, rather I'll be able to tell exactly what issues you have and, if you are up for it, I will offer solutions to your problems.
Criterion
Here's how it is going to work. I'm going to list things I expect from an affiliate website and if you can't say, "yes," to all of them, sorry but don't bother.
- > Be an actual website... Forums are not technically websites and they have relatively little to offer, even if you've managed to compile a few informative threads.
- > Eccentric site-styling is not always a sign of uniqueness. It could be a sign that you have no idea what you are doing. There are a variety of ways that websites are setup and often times that appearance is directed at a core audience, which is to say the site's style has been tested and proved to work for a certain market. Site's with bad design, horrid colour choice, inoperable links, pages for "Coming Soon!" and more will be automatically refused.
- > "I made my site for me!" That's fantastic, enjoy it. Realize that while a hobby-site doesn't necessarily need to have a mass market appeal you are still making a website and the whole purpose of having a website is to share thoughts, information, etc. That said, making a website for you and nobody else is silly. Refusing advice from other people about the things you like (red background) that don't appeal to a broader audience, and are generally hideous, is ignorant and you won't be affiliating with anyone worthwhile until you acknowledge this.
- > Have something to offer... It should go without saying that a website with exactly the same to offer as this one, with a generic layout, isn't really going to turn heads. You could offer much of the same information found here but approach it in a stylistic manner that sets itself apart from PLDH.net. Heck, a nice design placed around a relatively small website that's primary offering is a FanFic could get accepted. Assuming the FanFic is enjoyable, at my discretion, and complete or still being updated.
- > Make some attempt at updating the site. I realize people have lives... But to let a website sit for 10 weeks with no action and then suddenly reappear asking "Why aren't we affiliates anymore?" is ignorant. "I thought you died!" I'd consider re-affiliating assuming you return and want to continue but that'd probably depend on your track record...
So, assuming you've got that, go ahead and contact me. Good luck!
Link to Us
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More will be added when we decide to stop being lazy...
As for the provided tags: I would prefer that you use your own host but, if you cannot, for whatever reason, I have provided the tags with the URL's for the images already filled in. Your host or not you can simply copy/paste the formatted tags...
Current Affiliates
We currently only have one affiliate, The Cave of Dragonflies.
I contacted Butterfree of TCoD hoping she would agree to affiliating and she did! So cheers to our first ever affiliate! TCoD is one of the more unique website's I've seen out there; offering a variety of FanFictions, a highly active forum, help for webmasters & more!
